The following article, authored by Patrícia Villela Marino, was originally published in the newspaper O Globo on April 9. While a good portion of the Brazilian Parliament and public figures contort themselves in inflammatory rhetoric against the decriminalization of drugs, the numbers reveal an uncomfortable truth that penal populists prefer to ignore: organized crime in...
On June 17th and 18th, the Working Group on Drug Policy and Incarceration of the National Council for Criminal and Penitentiary Policy organized public debates in São Paulo to discuss the war on drugs and mass incarceration of young Black people. Led by the president of the Humanitas360 Institute, Patrícia Villela Marino, the group brought...
On May 21, the National Council for Criminal and Penitentiary Policy held in Brasília, at the headquarters of the Ministry of Justice, the public hearing “Decriminalization of Drugs and its Impacts on the Prison and Judiciary System”. The president of the Humanitas360 Institute, Patrícia Villela Marino, who is part of the collegiate, opened the event...
Approved by the Senate’s Constitution and Justice Committee on March 13, the proposed amendment to the Constitution that establishes the possession of drugs in any quantity as a crime is a legal setback, a political abomination and an enormous social risk. Confusing public opinion with prejudices and criminal punitiveness, the measure reinforces the worst instincts...
On September 18th, TV Cultura’s Roda Viva – one of the main journalistic programs on Brazilian television – was the stage for an in-depth debate on the causes and effects of the war on drugs, such as mass incarceration, and its possible solutions. Guest of the program, the president of the Humanitas360 Institute and advisor...
Initiative proposes rethinking the prohibition of drugs that can bring health benefits and stimulate the economy, in addition to allocating taxation on alcohol and tobacco to public health and public security policies The “Conselhão” created to advise President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, officially called the Sustainable Social Economic Development Council, has just established its...
Between the end of May and throughout June, the judgment in the Supreme Federal Court that may decriminalize the possession of drugs for personal consumption in Brazil was included in the agenda of at least five sessions, but all of them was postponed. Stalled in the Court since 2015, the process discusses the constitutionality of...